Trouble with long exposures, any ideas?

Hey guys, I have been trying my hand at shooting star trails, but I'm having a problem. I am using a SL1 and an opteka fish eye lense. At f11 and Iso set to 100, I have been setting my camera to bulb and leaving it open for a while. However, for some reason any shot over 15-20 minutes won't work. Once I release the shutter, the image doesn't appear. Instead there is a bracketed number on the lower right of my screen that just blinks and blinks. It's usually a 4 digit number. Any ideas as to what that bracketed number means and what I could be doing wrong? Thanks guys!

The bracketed number might be the number of the image on the card. I'm not sure what size card you're using, but I use a 32 GB card and usually have room for a few thousand pictures.

Glh222 wrote in post #16238108
Hey guys, I have been trying my hand at shooting star trails, but I'm having a problem. I am using a SL1 and an opteka fish eye lense. At f11 and Iso set to 100,

At f11 and ISO100 you will not capture any stars at all.

I use f2.8 and ISO1600.

I have a 32gb card and its basically new so I don't think that's the issue. Does a longer exposure image take up more space on the card?

Do you have LENR on? p132 in the manual

If yes, after taking a 15 min photo, it will take 15 minutes until the image is saved.

Also, why are you taking a 15 minute exposure?

^^^this, numerous stacked 1-3 minutes shots should work

jherm87 wrote in post #16238603
^^^this, numerous stacked 1-3 minutes shots should work

But not at f11 ISO100.

hollis_f wrote in post #16238969
But not at f11 ISO100.

Hollis is right. Some people think that since the exposure is going to be 3000 seconds or whatever, then they can go ahead and use a small aperture and low ISO. This is not correct because the stars are moving. In order to record their faint little traces you need to use a larger aperture and a higher ISO.

Then the problem starts to become background noise. The sky will start to blue up in the shot if you are anywhere near civilization. I've struggled with that.

And then somebody decides they just have to use a flashlight around the picnic table etc. etc.....sigh.

As for the OP's issue, the camera is 'stuck' because it is running the long exposure noise reduction. You want it to do that.

Great shot jeffrey, what stop, aperture USO and shutter speed did you use?

Glh222 wrote in post #16239198
Great shot jeffrey, what stop, aperture USO and shutter speed did you use?

That was 16mm, f/2.8, ISO 100 and 5071 seconds.